CHACOMER S.A.E.

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What it is

Chacomer S.A.E. was founded in 1956 by Kornelius Walde, started as a limited-liability company, converted to a public joint-stock company in 1975, and has traded on the Asunción exchange since 1995 — one of the first consumer-goods companies in Paraguay to do so.

It began by importing brushes, bicycle parts and hardware; bicycles from Germany came next, then clocks, chainsaws, motorbikes and appliances, building a portfolio through decades of range extensions.

The wider Grupo Chacomer is composed of six companies: Chacomer SAE, Comagro, Chacomer Automotores, Los Pioneros, Atlantic and Alas. The listed entity itself operates across five business lines — motorbikes and spare parts, automotive accessories, bicycles and appliances, forestry and garden equipment, and food additives — making it one of the most diversified consumer retailers in the country.

Chacomer runs 83 branches distributed across Paraguay and planned to open four more, alongside an industrial plant where it assembles its own products and a logistics hub. It also sells through more than 4,000 distributors nationwide and extends personal credit to customers — typically 24 or 36 months — for motorbikes, bicycles and appliances.

In 2002 the company installed an industrial plant in Fernando de la Mora with more than 49,500 square metres of floor space and capacity to produce 180,000 bicycles and 84,000 motorbikes a year. It holds the exclusive Paraguayan representation of Yamaha across all engine segments, leading the Japanese-motorcycle category.

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Who owns it

Chacomer is a Paraguayan family company; it belongs to the Walde family, who have been involved since the beginning of operations and have run it conservatively, limiting dividends and lending money back to the business rather than extracting cash. The company is directed by the Walde family and has been chaired by Roland Walde.

Within the wider group, Carlos Walde has served as president and Ronald Walde as a board member; Ernesto and Thomas Walde also hold directorships. The exact percentage of shares held by the family versus the public float is not published in the BVA issuer page or the FIX SCR rating report — the primary sources consulted; Paraguayan CNV quarterly-disclosure rules (Resolución SV N° 0022/2024) require financial statements but do not mandate granular ownership breakdowns for bond-market issuers.

Accounts are independently audited under Paraguayan accounting standards, though the board has no independent directors. Bond issues have been taken up almost entirely by directors and people close to the company, a structure that lets the family recycle profits back into the business while financing its core credit-sales operation without borrowing from outside banks.

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Who runs it

Chacomer is directed by the Walde family and presided over by Roland Walde. The names of a separate CEO or CFO in the executive sense are not disclosed in any primary source consulted — the BVA issuer listing, the CNV filings page (siv.bcp.gov.py), or the FIX SCR rating report — consistent with a private family-run structure where the board chair exercises operating authority.

The October 2024 FIX SCR report — the most authoritative public document available — names the rating date as 10 October 2024, classified as an annual review based on financial statements to 30 June 2024, with lead analyst Lisandro Sabarino (FIX SCR, Buenos Aires) as the primary external assessor of the company’s governance.

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The money, in plain words

In the twelve months to June 2024, Chacomer brought in Gs 1,498,262 million — about $247 million — in revenue, up roughly 7.8% from the prior comparable period (our calculation). Sales had grown for four consecutive years, and FIX expects around 7% annual revenue growth in the coming years, supported by Paraguay’s favourable consumer confidence and expanding road infrastructure.

For every 100 guaraníes of sales, about 9.5 guaraníes reached the operating-profit line — an EBITDA margin of 9.5% on the latest rolling year, recovering from 7.8% at end-2023. The EBITDA ratio of debt to operating profit improved to 3.5× at June 2024 from 4.2× at end-2023 — meaning the business earns enough in roughly three and a half years to repay all its borrowings.

Interest coverage stood at 5.3×, meaning operating profit covers interest payments more than five times over.

Most of that debt is money Chacomer owes to its own shareholders, not to banks. Total financial debt was Gs 502,617 million (~$83 million), with the family acting as the primary creditors.

The company plans no new incremental debt and will continue funding itself through bonds, trade finance and short-term bank lines, with capital spending largely covered by operating cash flow.

The business is capital-light but cash-cycle-heavy: over 85% of Chacomer’s sales are on credit with 24–36 month terms, so the company is essentially a retailer and a lender rolled into one; bad-debt rates are low and stable, with loans more than 60 days overdue at just 1.48% at June 2024.

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What it is doing now

The most recent material market move: in November 2022 Chacomer launched Series 16 through 23 of its G6 Global Bond Programme on the BVA, continuing an active bond-issuance strategy that has funded the business for over a decade across multiple programme generations (G4, G5, G6). The G6 programme alone has a total ceiling of Gs 250,000 million (~$41 million).

Four new branches were being planned at the time of the October 2024 rating review, taking the network beyond 83 outlets. In 2019 Chacomer added Electrolux to its portfolio as Paraguay’s exclusive representative for white goods — refrigerators, washing machines and cookers — and that relationship continues to deepen as urbanisation drives appliance demand.

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What to watch

• Debt trajectory: FIX expects leverage to keep falling toward 3.0× EBITDA from 2025 onwards; failure to do so — through weak sales or fresh borrowing — would be the clearest downgrade trigger.
• Margin recovery: The EBITDA margin rebounded to 9.5% from 7.8%; FIX projects around 8% for full-year 2024, with normalised import costs feeding a further improvement from 2025.
• River logistics: Chacomer imports the bulk of its inventory from China; disruption on the Paraguay–Paraná river system — a structural risk for landlocked Paraguay — forces the company to hold higher stock buffers and raises working-capital costs.
• Succession and governance: A wholly family-controlled board with no independent directors concentrates all strategic risk in the Walde family; any leadership change or inter-family dispute would be visible only after the fact in annual filings.
• Consumer cycle: Chacomer’s revenues are highly sensitive to household income cycles and consumer confidence; the sector has low barriers to entry, leaving it exposed to new competitors.

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This is news, not investment advice.